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Why do financial institutions charge so much to convert currency? | Banks do of course incur costs on currency transactions. But they're not as high as the fee charged to the customer. Most banks in most places lose a lot of money on operating bank accounts for customers, and make the money back by charging more than their costs for services like currency exchange. If you don't choose ... |
What part of buying a house would make my net worth go down? | Houses depreciate. Period. Things break: the hot water heater explodes, the AC cuts out in August, the roof leaks, the basement floods, toilets back up, raccoons dig up the garden. Each time something breaks, the house loses value. Every year the paint fades a little, the house loses value. Every time GE comes out with... |
What is the process of getting your first share? | Let's handle this as a "proof of concept" (POC); OP wants to buy 1 share of anything just to prove that they can do it before doing the months of painstaking analysis that is required before buying shares as an investment. I will also assume that the risks and costs of ownership and taxes would be included in OP's futu... |
Legal right to ask for someone bank records UK | You might want to head on over to https://law.stackexchange.com/ and ask the same question. However from a personal finance perspective this kind of drama is somewhat common when someone is deceased and financial expectations are not met by the heirs. It sounds like the daughter was expecting a lot more in inheritan... |
What are the marks of poor investment advice? | Anybody that offers a bigger return than a deposit claiming 100% safe is a fraud. There is always a risk: Yes, you can gain 30% in a year, but nobody can guarantee that you'll repeat that gain the next. My own experience (and I do take risks), one year I go up, the next year I go down... |
Is there anything comparable to/resembling CNN's Fear and Greed Index? | There are a number of ways to measure such things and they are generally called "sentiment indicators". The ones that I have seen "work", in the sense that they show relatively high readings near market tops and relatively low readings near market bottoms. The problem is that there are no thresholds that work consist... |
Why don't SPY, SPX, and the e-mini s&p 500 track perfectly with each other? | What you should compare is SPX, SPY NAV, and ES fair value. Like others have said is SPX is the index that others attempt to track. SPY tracks it, but it can get a tiny bit out of line as explained here by @Brick . That's why they publish NAV or net asset value. It's what the price should be. For SPY this will be ... |
Credit card closed. Effect on credit score (USA) | As documented in MyFICO (http://www.myfico.com/credit-education/whats-in-your-credit-score/), there are several factors that affect credit scores. Payment history (35%) The first thing any lender wants to know is whether you've paid past credit accounts on time. This is one of the most important factors in a FICO® ... |
How does Portfolio Turnover affect my investment? | may result in more taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. When the fund manager decides to sell shares of a stock, and those shares have grown in value, that growth is a capital gain. If that fund is part of a taxable account then the investors in the fund will have to declare that income/gain on their... |
What does a well diversified self-managed investment portfolio look like? | Diversification is spreading your investments around so that one point of risk doesn't sink your whole portfolio. The effect of having a diversified portfolio is that you've always got something that's going up (though, the corollary is that you've also always got something going down... winning overall comes by pickin... |
What happens if a company you hold short merges with another company? | I don't have anything definitive, but in general positions in a company are not affected materially by what is called a corporate action. "Corp Actions" can really be anything that affects the details of a stock. Common examples are a ticker change, or exchange change, IPO (ie a new ticker), doing a split, or merging w... |
where to get stock price forecast | I believe you are looking for price forecasts from analysts. Yahoo provides info in the analyst opinions section: here is an example for Apple the price targets are located in the "Price Target Summary" section. |
Where does the money go when I buy stocks? | When you buy a share of stock, you are almost always buying from someone who previously purchased that share and now wants to sell it. The money -- minus broker's fee -- goes to that other investor, which may be a person, a company (rarely the company that issued the stock, but that will occasionally be the case), an i... |
Are there capital gains taxes or dividend taxes if I invest in the U.S. stock market from outside of the country? | The country from which you purchase stock cannot charge you tax on either income or capital gains. Taxation is based on residency, so even when you purchase foreign stock its the tax laws of Malaysia (as your country of residence) that matter. At the time of writing, Malaysia does not levy any capital gains tax and the... |
Using pivot points to trade in the short term | Pivots Points are significant levels technical analysts can use to determine directional movement, support and resistance. Pivot Points use the prior period's high, low and close to formulate future support and resistance. In this regard, Pivot Points are predictive or leading indicators. There are at least five differ... |
How can a Canadian get exposure to safe haven currencies? | If S&P crashes, these currencies will appreciate. Note that the above is speculation, not fact. There is definitely no guarantee that, say, the CHF/CAD currency pair is inversely linked to the performance of the US stock market when measured in USD, let alone to the performance of the US stock market as measured in CAD... |
Should I buy ~$2200 of a hot stock or invest elsewhere? | Your debt is insane. Forget investing, pay off your debt. You owe 100% of your salary, with only one smallish asset (6K in the bank). Sure you have a car, but the value of the car is falling rapidly and can be taken to near zero by a simple accident. Once you have your debts paid off (or at least to a reasonable le... |
Is it a good idea to get an unsecured loan to pay off a credit card that won't lower a high rate? | nan |
Why is the stock market price for a share always higher than the earnings per share? | Earnings per share are not directly correlated to share price. NV Energy, the company you cited as an example, is an electric utility. The growth patterns and characteristics of utilities are well-defined, so generally speaking the value of the stock is driven by the quality of the company's cash flow. A utility with a... |
Trade? Buy and hold? Or both? | You mentioned three concepts: (1) trading (2) diversification (3) buy and hold. Trading with any frequency is for people who want to manage their investments as a hobby or profession. You do not seem to be in that category. Diversification is a critical element of any investment strategy. No matter what you do, yo... |
What's the best application, software or tool that can be used to track time? | A free solution that I've been using is Task Coach. It has tasks, subtasks, categories, and all the stuff you would expect from a time tracking program. It also counts each distinct period spent on a task as a separate "effort" that you can add comments, for example to remind you what that chunk of time was spent on. |
Who can I get to help me roll my 401(k) into an IRA when I live overseas? | This is more of a general answer about your situation than a specific answer to your question. You might consider getting a SIP telephone number based in the US, or an even easier to use IP based phone number. That way you can use it through your Internet connection and make eaiser calls to US companies that you still... |
What should I do with my $25k to invest as a 20 years old? | I don't like your strategy. Don't wait. Open an investment account today with a low cost providers and put those funds into a low cost investment that represents as much of the market as you can find. I am going to start by assuming you are a really smart person. With that assumption I am going to assume you can see... |
What is the process of getting your first share? | You could also look up stock trading games. Basically, you get x amount of "money" and "invest" it in stocks, trying to get the highest return of the group in y amount of time. They are a decent way to get used to how different types of trades work without having to risk any real money, while having enough "money" to... |
Who owned my shares before me? | A lot will depend on wether you have in your possession the physical share documents or just numbers in your brokerage portfolio. Electronic shares are not traceable as they do not exist as individual entities. ETrade certainly knows who bought how much, but no concept of which ones. Lets say ET buys 1000 shares of Acm... |
How to rescue my money from negative interest? | The problem is that every option comes with risk - as you note, if you put money in stocks, you could lose (and many stocks are overpriced). If you put money in bonds, you could lose (many bonds are overpriced). If you buy precious metals, they could fall further currently. If you hold cash, central banks might try ... |
Interest on security deposits paid to landlords, in Michigan? | NO. The legislation requires the landlord to deposit it in a bank. Check out pages 7-10 of the linked document. There is no mention of interest. The second clause, I believe, is probably for large landlords who hold hundreds of thousands of dollars of security. http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/publications/... |
What is the rough estimate of salary value for a taxpayer to pay AMT? | Turbox Tax states the following: "For 2015, the AMT exemption amounts are $53,600 for individual taxpayers, $83,400 for married taxpayers filing jointly and surviving spouses, and $41,700 for married persons filing separately. This is the amount you're allowed to deduct from your taxable income before applying the AMT... |
What is the best way to invest in gold as a hedge against inflation without having to hold physical gold? | Definitely look at CEF. They have tax advantages over GLD and SLV, and have been around for 50 years, and are a Canadian company. They hold their gold in 5 distributed vaults. Apparently tax advantage comes because with GLD, if you supposedly approach them with enough money, you can take out a "bar of gold". Just o... |
Does Joel Greenblatt's “Magic Formula Investing” really beat the market? | While it is true that this formula may have historically outperformed the market you have to keep one important thing in mind: once the formula is out in the open, the market inefficiency will disappear. Here is what I mean. Historically there have always been various inefficiencies in the market structure. Some people... |
Is there any kind of unsecured stock loan? | buy an option, they cost less and let you buy shares in the future at the price you see now. only if you plan to buy more than 100 shares of the stock at that future date though. better learn how to use options strategically first, which I won't go into. but this is indeed their purpose. |
Is Cost of Living overstated? | I'm not convinced that cost of living is related to ensuring greater appreciation of assets over time, especially over a 30 year window. The importance of regional differences in cost of living to anyone's decision-making should be weighted by the percentage of their income spent on indexed items. That is, for people ... |
Do people tend to spend less when using cash than credit cards? | Unless a study accounts for whether the users are following a budget or not, it is irrelevant to those who are trying to take their personal finances seriously. I can certainly believe that those who have no budget will spend more on a credit card than they will on a debit card or with cash. Under the right circumstanc... |
What U.S. banks offer two-factor authentication (such as password & token) for online banking? | Some credit unions also offer them and support Business banking as well. First Tech Credit Union is a great example. They also have the most security-oriented banking website I've seen to date. https://www.firsttechfed.com/ As a side note I've found that Credit Unions are a MUCH better deal for personal and business ba... |
Optimal way to use a credit card to build better credit? | Great question. First, my recommendation would be for you to get a card that does not have a yearly fee. There are many credit cards out there that provide cash back on your purchases or points to redeem for gift cards or other items. Be sure to cancel the credit card that you have now so you don't forget about that y... |
What benefits are there to having a Pension (Retirement Account) In Ireland? | As you point out, the main benefits of a pension/retirement account over a traditional cash/taxable account are the legal and tax benefits. Most Western countries establish a specific legal definition for an account which is often taxed less or not at all relative to taxable accounts and which contains some protection... |
I got my bank account closed abruptly how do I get money out? | First, if your account has been closed you should not be able to use your debit card in any format. As you mentioned that you are able to use that so your back account is active. So this indicates it is a scam In case account is closed, bank confirms your address and will send you a cheque for the amount in your accou... |
What is the best way to short the San Francisco real estate market? | The most obvious route is to short the lenders, preferably subprime. Since there are no lenders that operate exclusively in San Francisco, you could look north at Canada. The Canadian real estate market (esp. Vancouver) is just as overheated as the San Francisco market. As a start, famous short seller Marc Cohodes reco... |
Need your help and suggestion | How much amount can we transfer from India to the USA? Is the limit per year? As I understand your father in law is Indian Citizen and his tax paid earnings need to be transferred outside of India. Under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme by RBI, one can transfer upto 2,50,000 USD. Please check with your Bank for the ex... |
Official Bank Check | How? Basically all banks nowadays allow online deposits from a smartphone - you take a picture from the front and back of the check, and submit it, and that's it. You still have the paper check, and it looks pristine, but it is deposited (and the paper is worthless). |
JCI headache part 1: How to calculate cost basis / tax consequences of JCI -> TYC merger? | The $47.67 per share figure is the trading price, or fair market value, of the OLD Johnson Controls, and should not be used to figure your gain nor to figure your basis in the new Johnson Controls International. Your new basis is the total of the gross proceeds received; that is, the cash plus the fair market value of... |
What will my taxes be as self employed? | The amount of the income taxes you will owe depends upon how much income you have, after valid business expenses, also it will depend upon your filing status as well as the ownership form of your business and what state you live in. That said, you will need to be sure to make the Federal 1040ES quarterly prepayments o... |
Will a credit card company close my account if I stop using it? | The workaround solution is to simply avoid having an exactly zero balance on your account. Thus for inactive credit cards that I want to keep around for emergency use, I always leave a small positive balance on the card. The credit card company reserves the right to cancel my card at any time, but a positive balance wo... |
If throwing good money after bad is generally a bad idea, is throwing more money after good Ok? | I have heard that investing more money into an investment which has gone down is generally a bad idea*. "Throwing good money after bad" so to speak. Is investing more money into a stock, you already have a stake in, which has gone up in price; a good idea? Other things being equal, deciding whether to buy more st... |
Why call option price increases with higher volatility | Let's say a stock trades at $100 right now, and you can buy a $100 call option. When you buy the call option (and the money you paid is gone), one of two things can happen: The share price goes up, or the share price goes down. If the share price goes up, you profit. If the share price goes down, you don't lose! Becau... |
What gives non-dividend stocks value to purchasers? [duplicate] | A Company start with say $100. Lets say the max it can borrow from bank is $100 @ $10 a year as Interest. After a years say, On the $200 the company made a profit of $110. So it now has total $310 Option 1: Company pays back the Bank $100 + $10. It further gave away the $100 back to shareholders as dividends. The Balan... |
Vanguard Target Retirement Fund vs. Similar ETF Distribution (w/ REIT) | Your approach sounds solid to me. Alternatively, if (as appears to be the case) then you might want to consider devoting your tax-advantaged accounts to tax-inefficient investments, such as REITs and high-yield bond funds. That way your investments that generate non-capital-gain (i.e. tax-expensive) income are safe f... |
Is there any way to buy a new car directly from Toyota without going through a dealership? | Yes, nothing is impossible! :) You can buy it directly from the factory of manufacturer, but then you will have to pay for sea shipping of this car. E.g. you can buy it directly from Japanese Toyota but then you will have to pay to sea cargo ship to deliver your car in container from Japan. Since this car is already yo... |
Where to start with personal finance? | Personal finance is a fairly broad area. Which part might you be starting with? From the very basics, make sure you understand your current cashflow: are you bank balances going up or down? Next, make a budget. There's plenty of information to get started here, and it doesn't require a fancy piece of software. This... |
Do retailers ever stock goods just to make other goods sell better? | That happens all the time. The best situation for this to happen is when you have several products, each a bit better and a bit more expensive than the other, and you add a new product which is the cheapest. That gets people into the store to look at the cheapest product, and then you show the the next more expensive w... |
Is it a gift or not? | There are a few things that this question prompts - |
Why do gas stations charge different amounts in the same local area? | Location, Location, Location. The closer to the highway, the more they can charge. People want to go less than a mile from the exit to get gas. Therefore they save time, but spend more money. That is understandable, so the gas station takes advantage of the situation. |
How does conversion of Secured Convertible Notes work? | Let's assume that the bonds have a par value of $1,000. If conversion happens, then one bond would be converted into 500 shares. The price in the market is unimportant. Regardless of the share price in the market, the income per share would be increased by the absence of $70 in interest expense. It would be decreas... |
Should I switch/rollover my IRA to a Gold IRA at Regal Assets? | Advantages of Gold IRA (regardless of where you're holding it): Disadvantages of Gold IRA: Instead, you can invest in trust funds like SLV (The ETF for silver) or GLD in your regular brokerage IRA. These funds negotiate their prices of storage, are relatively liquid, and shield you from the dangers of owning physical m... |
Why is everyone saying how desperately we need to save money “in this economy”? | It's all about risk. In 1990, expressing the idea of the US defaulting on debt payments would result in you being labelled as a crank. Yet in 2011, the President and Speaker of the House played chicken with the credit of the United States, and have a date to do it again in December 2011. |
Can a company block a specific person from buying its stock? | I assume you are talking about a publicly traded company listed on a major stock exchange and the buyer resides in the US. (Private companies and non-US locations can change the rules really a lot.) The short answer is no, because the company does not own the stock, various investors do. Each investor has to make an in... |
Why should one only contribute up to the employer's match in a 401(k)? | The matching funds are free money, so it is a very good idea to take that money off the table. Look at it as free 100% return: you deposit $1000, your employer matches that $1000, you now have $2000 in your 401(k). (Obviously, I'm keeping things simple. Vesting schedules mean that the employer match isn't yours to k... |
Motley fool says you can make $15,978 more per year with Social Security. Is this for real? | The purpose of this spammy Motley Fool video ad is to sell their paid newsletter products. Although the beginning of the video promises to tell you this secret trick for obtaining additional Social Security payments, it fails to do so. (Luckily, I found a transcript of the video, so I didn't have to watch it.) What t... |
Are credit histories/scores international? | It's not just that credit history is local; it's that it's a private business run for profit. The "big three" credit bureaus in the US are Experian, Equifax and Transunion. They collect information on debt usage and abuse from various companies in the US, and charge a fee to provide that information (and their judgeme... |
How bad is it to have a lot of credit available but not used? | Unless you have a history of over-using credit (i.e. you've gotten yourself into debt trouble), then I think that the banker is giving you bad advice in telling you to get your own credit limit reduced. Having more credit available to you that is left unused will make your utilization ratio lower, which is generally b... |
Are there Cashflow Positive Investment Properties in the USA? | Americans are snapping, like crazy. And not only Americans, I know a lot of people from out of country are snapping as well, similarly to your Australian friend. The market is crazy hot. I'm not familiar with Cleveland, but I am familiar with Phoenix - the prices are up at least 20-30% from what they were a couple of y... |
Do Americans really use checks that often? | People who rent an apartment will typically pay by check. Probably 90% of the checks I have written are for rent. To some extent this falls under the previously mentioned "payments to another person" rule. |
Will I get taxed on withdrawals from Real Cash Economy games? | Situation #1: I keep playing, and eventually earn 1000 PED. I withdraw this. Will I get taxed? If so, by how much? This is probably considered an "award", so whatever your country taxes for lottery/gambling winnings would be applicable. If there's no specific taxation on this kinds of income - then it is ordinary inc... |
Tax Write-offs and knowing how much I need to spend before the end of the year | (I'm assuming USA tax code as this is untagged) As the comments above suggest there is no "right" answer or easy formula. The main issue is that you likely got into business to make money and if you make money consistently you will pay taxes. Reinvesting generally should be a business decision where the main concern ... |
Is it wise to sell company stock to pay down a mortgage? | If by "Company Stock" you mean "stock in the company I work for" then absolutely sell your stock. It is too big a risk to have your investments tied into the same company that is also providing your salary. If you mean stock as in general investments, I like to look at it this way. If you have $25,000 stock and a $1... |
Fringe Benefits (Lodging) for single member S-Corp | None whatsoever, no. Moreover, trying something like that would very likely trigger a full audit. |
How effective are hotel condos for investment properties? | I agree with Joe Taxpayer that a lot of details are missing to really evaluate it as an investment... for context, I own a few investment properties including a 'small' 10+ unit apartment complex. My answer might be more than you really want/need, (it kind of turned into Real Estate Investing 101), but to be fair you'... |
Lump sum annuity distribution — do I owe estate tax? | There can be Federal estate tax as well as State estate tax due on an estate, but it is not of direct concern to you. Estate taxes are paid by the estate of the decedent, not by the beneficiaries, and so you do not owe any estate tax. As a matter of fact, most estates in the US do not pay Federal estate tax at all bec... |
How can I find a list of self-select stocks & shares ISA providers? | My go-to response whenever anyone asks me this is the Monevator table of platform fees. It looks a little complicated at first, but scroll past the table for a couple of paragraphs of useful info to help narrow down your search. The general tone of the page is geared more towards investors in index funds, but the fees ... |
Loan to son - how to get it back | A few ideas. I suggest it would wise to consider what lesson is learned as a result of any resolution of a financial issue. Is it a lesson of responsibility and of the importance of keeping one's word, or of getting away with whatever happens (poorly planned business) with no adverse consequences. "No" consequences (e.... |
Making $100,000 USD per month, no idea what to do with it | I know your "pain". But don't worry about investing the money right now -- leave it uninvested in the short term. You have other stuff you need to school up on. Investment will come, and it's not that hard. In the short term, focus on taxes. Do some "mock" run-throughs of your expected end-of-year taxes (use last ... |
High dividend stocks | Like almost all investing question: it depends! Boring companies generally appreciate slowly and as you note, pay dividends. More speculative investing can get you some capital gains, but also are more likely to tank and have you lose your original investment. The longer your time horizon, and the more risk you are wil... |
What percentage of my portfolio should be in individual stocks? | If you are comfortable with the risk etc, then the main thing to worry about is diversity. For some folks, picking stocks is beyond them, or they have no interest in it. But if it's working for you, and you want to keep doing it, more power to you. If you are comfortable with the risk, you could just as well have ALL... |
High-risk investing is better for the young? Why? | I'm going to diverge from most of the opinions expressed here. It is common for financial advisors to assume that your portfolio should become less risky as you get older. Explanations for this involve hand-waving and saying that you can afford to lose money when young because you have time to make up for it later. H... |
Frequency of investments to maximise returns (and minimise fees) | Okay, I think I managed to find the precise answer to this problem! It involves solving a non-linear exponential equation, but I also found a good approximate solution using the truncated Taylor series. See below for a spreadsheet you can use. Let's start by defining the growth factors per period, for money in the bank... |
Why are interest rates on saving accounts so low in USA and Europe? | Banks in general will keep saving rates as low as possible especially if there is a surplus of funds or alternative access for funding as in the case of the Fed in the USA. Generally speaking, why would bank pay you a high interest rate when they cannot generate any income from your money? Usually we will expect to see... |
As a young adult, what can I be doing with my excess income? | This is all very basic and general advice, that works for most, but not all. You are unique with your own special needs and desires. Good luck! P.S.: not exactly related to your question, but when you get more familiar with investing and utilizing your money, find more ways to save more. For example, change phone pla... |
Why does short selling require borrowing? | It's actually quite simple. You're actually confusing two concept. Which are taking a short position and short selling itself. Basically when taking a short position is by believing that the stock is going to drop and you sell it. You can or not buy it back later depending on the believe it grows again or not. So basic... |
How to calculate Stamp duty of North Territory in Australia? | The formula is actually as follows: (0.06571441 * V^2) + 15 * V, where V is the value divided by 1,000 which gives us AU$ 23,929 You find the same value using the calculator you linked to if you select "Investment" instead of "Primary Residence" or uncheck "I am a first home buyer" Edit: I don't know how they determin... |
UK: Personal finance book for a twenty-something | Consultant, I commend you for thinking about your financial future at such an early age. Warren Buffet, arguably the most successful investor ever lived, and the best known student of Ben Graham has a very simple advice for non-professional investors: "Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a ve... |
How are shares used, and what are they, physically? | If you are particularly interested in the share certificate artifacts themselves, there is a collection hobby in paper share certificates and bonds, called scripophily. This can include both active share certificates (for instance, think about giving your kid or grandkid a frameable paper share of Hasbro, Disney or Mc... |
German stock exchange, ETR vs FRA | I still can't understand why there is a price discrepancancy. There isn't. It's the same stock and price differences between such major exchanges will always be minimal. I think you simply haven't paid attention to the date range. It seems Google finance only has data for FRA:BMW reaching back to 2011, so if you try t... |
Net Cash Flows from Selling the Bond and Investing | Investopedia has a good explanation of the term shorting which is what this is. In the simplest of terms, someone is borrowing the bond and selling it with the intent to replace the security and any dividends or coupons in the end. The idea is that if a bond is overvalued, one may be able to buy it back later for a che... |
How does a TFSA work? Where does the interest come from? | A TFSA is a tax free savings account. It is a type of account where you can buy various investments like stocks, bonds, or funds (mutual, exchange traded, and money market). There are some other options but it's best to see what your bank or broker will allow. You probably specified the type of investment when you op... |
What prevents investors from buying high yield stocks and selling them as soon as their dividend is paid out? | The market is not stupid. It realises that a company is worth less after paying out dividends than before paying them. (It's obvious, since that company has just given out part of its earnings.) So after a company pays out dividends, its stock price normally drops approximately by the amount paid. Therefore if you buy,... |
Understanding the T + 3 settlement days rule | The key word you forgot to include from Slide 29 is: Free-Riding Investopedia defines free-riding as: In the context of a brokerage firm, a free rider problem refers to a situation where a client has been allowed to purchase shares without actually paying for them, and then subsequently sells the shares (ideally for pr... |
Are marijuana based investments promising, or just another scam? | Any advertisement for a "business opportunity" is nearly always a scam of some kind. In such deals, the seller is the one making the money. They rely on the fantasy of the average person who imagines themself with a profitable business. Real businessmen do not get their businesses from flyers on the sides of telephone ... |
Why do only motor insurers employ “No Claims Discounts”? | Some people are better drivers than others. A collision can happen to anybody, even good drivers. The collision might not be your fault at all; it might be entirely the fault of the other party. However, the best drivers do a better job of avoiding collisions in situations where the other drivers on the road are doing... |
Who determines, and how, the composition of the S&P 500 index? | S & P's site has a methodology link that contains the following which may be of use: Market Capitalization. Unadjusted market capitalization of US$ 4.6 billion or more for the S&P 500, US$ 1.2 billion to US$ 5.1 billion for the S&P MidCap 400, and US$ 350 million to US$ 1.6 billion for the S&P SmallCap 600. The... |
Roth vs. Whole Insurance vs. Cash | Advantage of cash: You can spend the money without having to pay any fees or taxes to get it out. Disadvantage: When inflation is greater than zero, which it has been for many decades, your cash is continually losing value. Advantages of an IRA (Roth or classic): Your money will usually grow as the investments return a... |
When one pays Quarterly Estimated Self Employment Taxes, exactly what are they paying? | From the IRS page on Estimated Taxes (emphasis added): Taxes must be paid as you earn or receive income during the year, either through withholding or estimated tax payments. If the amount of income tax withheld from your salary or pension is not enough, or if you receive income such as interest, dividends, alimony, se... |
What are the ramifications of lawsuits over “breaches of fiduciary duty” for the average shareholder? | As an investor, I try to interpret the suits as an attempt to in some way influence the actions of the company - and not, usually, as a serious legal threat (or as likely to lead to serious legal consequences). My (shallow) understanding (as a non-lawyer) is that the requirements for a lawsuit to be filed as class-acti... |
What is this fund? | SMID CAP FUND is Fidelity's way of saying SMALL to MID CAP FUND. Small to Medium is self explanatory. Cap is capitalization, and it basically means how much the sum of all the existing shares of the company are worth. Fidelity names the funds inside their 401k plans according to who provides the fund. They also pro... |
Why do some expiration dates have more open interest for options? | The third Friday of each month is an expiration for the monthly options on each stock. Stock with standardized options are in one of three "cycles" and have four open months at any give time. See http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/optioncycle.asp In addition some stocks have weekly options now. Those generally have... |
Can I work with two or more mortgage brokers at the same time? | Obviously mate. Mortgage advisors don't have just one client, similarly why should you have only one advisor? it´s an open market. Don't worry about wasting their time, you are not wasting their time if you are considering a mortgage. then, in case you found a better deal with another mortgage advisor then that´s life ... |
Is foreign stock considered more risky than local stock and why? | If you intend to be responsive to news and intraday price moves, for foreign stocks these will often happen while you're asleep (e.g. the Tokyo Stock Exchange opens at roughly midnight UK time). |
Does an issue of bonus shares improve shareholder value? | It sounds like "bonus shares" are the same as a stock dividend. Stock dividends are equivalent to a stock split except for accounting treatment (good explanation here: http://www.accountingcoach.com/online-accounting-course/17Xpg05.html). As an investor, the only likely effect of a stock dividend is to make it more com... |
Does financing a portfolio on margin affect the variance of a portfolio? | Variance of a single asset is defined as follows: σ2 = Σi(Xi - μ)2 where Xi's represent all the possible final market values of your asset and μ represents the mean of all such market values. The portfolio's variance is defined as σp2 = Σiwi2σi2 where, σp is the portfolio's variance, and wi stands for the weight of th... |
Why is the regulation of “swaps” important to failing systemically significant institutions? | Have you ever considered how much faith and confidence play a role in the financial sector? The calling in of swaps could cause issues similar to a Bank Run, which may or may not involve others coming into play. While this is cleaning up the mess from a few years ago, there is something to be said for how complicated... |
Can saving/investing 15% of your income starting age 25, likely make you a millionaire? | I'll offer another answer, using different figures. Let's assume 6% is the rate of return you can expect. You are age 25, and plan to retire at age 65. If you have $0 and want $1M at retirement, you will need to put away $524.20/month, or $6,290.40/year, which is 15% of $41,936. So $41,936 is what you'd need to make... |
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